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Winning QB is M.I.A. In DAL

The Patriots traded for Tim Tebow and signed him to a 10 year/$110 million extension to learn from and take over for Tom Brady when he retires. Ok, maybe that didn’t happen (yet) but if it did it still would not be the worse move of the NFL offseason. That prestigious honor goes to the Dallas Cowboys for giving Tony Romo a 6 year/$108 million extension. Romo getting that kind of a deal is a bigger robbery than the Lufthansa heist.

Romo is not an elite quarterback so there’s no reason he should be getting elite money. He makes more money than Eli Manning and/or Tom Brady (both of whom have more victories in the Super Bowl than Romo has victories in the playoffs). There’s a reason Romo went undrafted out of Eastern Illinois. There’s a reason Romo couldn’t take the starting job from such Canton bound QBs as Quincy Carter or Chad Hutchinson or a 41-year old Vinny Testaverde. Romo lacks the ability to close out clutch situations. He will be 33 this month, if he doesn’t have it now he ain’t never gonna get it!!

The only number Romo has in his favor is 177. That is the number of TDs he has thrown for the Cowboys which is the all-time record. Troy Aikman is second with 165 but lets not forget that Aikman gave a lot of TDs to Emmit Smith so let’s take Romo’s record with a grain of salt.

The small-time moments in Romo’s career stick out like Samuel L. Jackson in a light-saber battle. They go back to the first playoff game and the “botched-snap”. Romo’s inability to get the snap down on a field goal attempt against Seattle and the subsequent turnover cost Dallas the game. He followed that up next season when , despite throwing for 4000+ yards and breaking the Dallas regular season record for TD passes and completion percentage, in a playoff game against the NY Giants Romo completed 50% of his passes and with a chance to win it all he threw an interception in the end zone to end the game.

How did Tony redeem himself next season? Well in the final game of the season with the playoff on the line he forgot to show up. Well, actually he showed up but he might as well just stayed home. A 44-6 loss to the Eagles saw Romo throw for a putrid 183 yards and an interception. His QBR in that game was 16.8. I haven’t seen someone perform that bad since Ashley Simpson got caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live.

It’s not just big playoff games that Romo is relegated to coming up short in, there are regular season games too. In the much hyped, nationally televised opener of the $1.3 billion Cowboys Stadium opener the QB completed a mere 44% of his passes. He accompanied that with three interceptions (one returned for a TD) and only 127 yards in a 33-31 loss to the Giants. It seemed Romo may have turned the corner later that hear when he actually got his first playoff victory (hallelujah!!) when Dallas defeated Philadelphia 34-14 (he had a 104.9 rating).However, Romo reverted back to his old self the following game against Minnesota where he fumbled three times, was picked off once, got sacked six times and put up an anemic 17.1 QBR in a 34-3 loss.

History just repeated itself in 2011 and 2012 when, once again with the playoffs on the line, Romo blew a chance to win the NFC East. He was sacked six times and posted a QBR of 13 against the Giants followed by a three interception game the following year against the Redskins. In that Redskins game Tony was picked off with 3:33 left having the interception become the eventual losing TD.

Sure people will say the contract was smart because it got the Cowboys under the salary cap. WRONG!!! Part of the reason Dallas was over the cap in the first place was because they stupidly signed Romo to an undeserving 6year/$67.5 million contract in 2007. Two wrongs don’t make a right and Dallas just keeps digging their own grave. People will also say I’m “hating” on Romo because I’m a Giants fan. Partly true but not entirely. I happen to be a big fan of Redskins QB Robert Griffin III and used to think highly of Eagles signal caller Mike Vick. Heck, I even had both on my fantasy teams the previous two seasons. If having someone on your fantasy team isn’t a sign of respect then I just don’t know what is.

Bottom line is Romo can’t get it done. Facts don’t lie. Dallas overpaid. Actually paying anything was going to be overpaying. No other team in the league was going to give Romo the money he got. The Cowboys would have been better off letting Tony walk after his contract expired and starting new. Plenty of young QBs available to bring in. Come to think about it, Tebow is still an upgrade for Dallas. At least he knows how to win.